"If, in a few months, the Palestinians still continue to disregard their part in implementing the road map," he said, referring to the peace plan promoted by the Bush administration, "then Israel will initiate the unilateral security step of disengagement from the Palestinians".
"If their economy reaches the levels of the Depression they'll be pretty well off," scoffed Boaz Ganor, a leading counter-terrorism expert, when the question was raised at a recent security conference on the disengagement.
But, he continued, "I would like to stress that this disengagement plan is a security measure and not a political one.
Disengagement decreased Israel's security; it did not enhance it.You also gloss over certain problematic sections of the Hamas charter: calls for the destruction of Israel (preamble); the eradication of all Jews (article 7); the assertion that peaceful solutions are futile (article 13); and condemnation of the Egypt-Israel peace agreement (article 32).
According to Mr. Sharon's speech, the disengagement plan would involve new "security lines" separating Israel from Palestinian-dominated territory in the West Bank and Gaza and a "change in the deployment of settlements".
That impression will grow stronger after the Gaza disengagement if, as seems likely, the PA security forces cannot prevent looting and land invasions of the evacuated Israeli settlements.
My disengagement plan... will improve Israel's security and economy and will reduce friction and tension between Israelis and Palestinians.
Such American disengagement would be unlikely to compromise Israeli security, because although much tumult is occurring in the Arab world, such has always been the case, and Israel has dealt with it in the past.
This is likely to increase as Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, pushes on with his plan to withdraw Jewish settlers and the Israeli security forces from most of the strip, as part of a "disengagement" from the Palestinians.
If the PA could not deliver security, Israel would instead.But nearly three years after the Gaza disengagement, that too has proved a false hope.
